Thomas Edison Electric Car Patent

January 19, 1904, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for an” Electrical Automobile” (No. 750,102) designed with a driving motor that may be conveniently and effectively utilized for the purpose of charging the batteries. Thus a small steam engine, preferable of the turbine type, was connected to the armature of an electric motor. By reversing the rotation of the motor-armature, the electric motor converts to a generator for charging the batteries. A clutch then is used to disconnect the motor from the driving wheels during charging (or, the wheels could be jacked up during the charging operation). In usual operation, the motor ran from storage batteries to power the carriage.